You may have something as simple as a loose air line, but if you hear air escaping, you're going to cook the air compressor in no time, as it's running 100% of the time.

New struts are in, but the damping adjustment rod isn't lined up properly with where the actuator thinks it should be, so my rear suspension is rock hard.

Left everything disconnected, tonight, and turned the adjustment rods in the struts 180 degrees, figuring it can't possibly be any stiffer than it was. I'll know after tomorrow's commute to work (yes, I work weekends, the glory of a systems engineer).

Gillz460L, it's been much more difficult than changing struts should be. First one took about 6 hours, second one was a bit more than one hour, so I learned what I can get away with and how to get the new one where it needs to be.

Preliminary notes list:

Two floor jacks
Two decently long pry bars
The new top nuts are 15 mm not 14 mm
You need six new nuts for the strut top covers
A long block of 2x4
A mini-sledgehammer
10/12/14/15/17/18/19/21 mm sockets and wrenches come into play

 

 

Yeah, for some reason, the left-rear corner is about 2-3 inches lower than the rest, a 'height high', and that's what's messing the whole thing up.

I'll tweak it when I get home, tonight.

I went down to the parking lot earlier today, and using the camera on my phone, I took pictures of how the adjustment rod was oriented. Turned each of them 180 degrees, and put the actuators back on.

However, I really need to raise the left rear corner, so it has travel to use, because now, that corner bottoms out almost immediately, disguising if the damper is set to 'firm' or 'soft'. I think I have it right, but not enough to put the rear seat back in place.

Plus, said seat lower and rear cushion are in the front hall of my house, about 30 miles away.

I'm likely driving the only LWB 460 with no back seat right now. Lemme tell ya, it's a lot louder in there, and I can hear the strut actuators moving when they adjust the damping. I should take video of how quickly they move, so y'all can see it in action. After moving the sport/comfort switch, it takes less than 1/10th of a second for them to move the damper adjustment rods to their new position.

I've seen invoices for new control arms and air struts. To do all four struts and control arms could be about $13K in parts & labor.

I'm can do both job for less than $3K, and the struts have a lifetime warranty, so it's a one-time cost, there. Urethane bushes should have effectively an unlimited lifespan, too.

Granted, it's going to take a few days, but that's okay to save $10K.